Out of the Box
by bhut
Summary: Grant Ward has gotten out of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, everything. Raina has been pushed out of everything. It's natural that the two of them should meet. S2 spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

**Part 1**

_Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to Whedon and Marvel™._

Even when you become free – especially _after_ you become free – the matters of personal hygiene and similar small issues become somewhat important. Grant Ward was free, but he had no intention of wandering around clad in his S.H.I.E.L.D. prison-issue grey jumpsuit and a beard.

Wait, a beard actually seemed appropriate, manly and all. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents did not, generally speaking, wear facial hair, but some did. And Grant was no longer an agent of anything, of any organisation, so he was free to wear whatever he wanted to.

He knew the location of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s local safe house, though. It was a gamble, this being so close to the Playground, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new HQ and all, but luck was with Grant now, it seems, for that was the American South, and Grant knew the American South, much better than Coulson or the man's underlings would have expected.

_...It was funny, really – Garrett had made it clear from the beginning that Coulson and his team were to be enemies, and yet Ward did not think of them as such – he could not, not for all the loyalty he had owed the man. Yet less than a month with Coulson as a captive – and he most certainly did. Life certainly loves a good joke._

That said, Grant had no intention of staying in the safe house for any long amount of time – a night or two at most. After all, he had a list of people that he needed to settle the score with, starting with his own brother. Grant was not much into politics, and his feelings for his elder brother were nothing more than pure unadulterated loathing, but he wouldn't deny the fact that his sibling was formidable in his own right, the soldier he had sent to convoy Grant to him were top notch.

Grant made the killing of top notch soldiers, agents, etc his personal hobby, one that he never told Garrett about, but the elder man, Grant suspected, had figured it out by himself...and didn't mind. Garrett may have changed for the worse after Raina had injected him with the alien goop, but before that, there was a reason why both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra considered him to be one of their top agents – just as they did with Grant himself. If only Garrett had not fallen apart in the first place...but he had, and now Coulson was the one injected with the alien goop – talk about dramatic irony!..

Yet dramatic irony aside, Grant really did need a shave, a change of clothes, and even a good night's rest. Therefore, he walked up to the front door and took the key to the front door from its secret place. (This was a _safe_ house, after all.) He opened the door and walked in – and that is when the situation once more took turn for the worse.

The safe house was lived-in – the bed was made and re-made, there was clothing draped on one of the armchairs, the closet was apparently full, and there was the smell of a woman in the air, meaning that either one was living in the safe house to be, well, safe, or some of the agents were using this place to be their babe crib. Grant was betting on the first.

"Is there anyone here?" the door to the bathroom opened and out came...Raina. She blinked and stiffened. Grant blinked also.

"Well, this is unexpected," he said mildly. "Does Coulson know you're here?"

"It was his idea," Raina said in an equally soft tone, sitting down with her arms and hands carefully, and pointedly, outstretched, and her body language saying, "Please don't kill me!" loud and clear to anyone, let alone to someone as experienced as Grant Ward was. "I haven't seen you in a while, not since Ian Quinn and I went our separate ways from you and Garrett. How have you been?"

"For the last three and a half weeks I've been stuck in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s basement, serving as an information source," Grant shrugged, looking around in an idle way. "Told them everything that they currently know about Hydra."

"But not everything _you_ know?" Raina said in that smug tone of voice that she used whenever she would figure something out and be a good boy.

"That's neither here nor there," Grant shrugged – he never liked Raina even _before_ she injected Garrett with the alien goop and then fled when things became too intense for her tastes. "Look, can I use the bathroom for a quick shave and a shower? I planned to stay here for the night, but now that you are here-"

"Wait. You are not here for me?" Raina was genuinely startled for the first time since the two of them have met.

"No. You're not on my list of people to kill," Grant said 'helpfully' and was rewarded with a very scared look.

"Really? Um, that's nice, but I was meaning-"

"Raina, stop," Grant shook his head. "I'm not here from S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, or anyone else. I am not here after you. I was here for the safe house, which was not in use the last time I checked. Now that it is, I'm done with it."

"I meant, you aren't going to free me?" Raina said flatly.

"No. I didn't even know you were here," Grant shrugged. "Sorry to bother you, BTW."

"Oh," and here Raina had largely drooped. "I see. The Doctor has settled things with Hydra and does not need me; S.H.I.E.L.D. is largely content with me being here under their thumb. You do not even want to kill me-"

"Well, that's what comes from being loyal to nobody – nobody wants you once the dust has settled."

"I am loyal to the Doctor-"

"Fine. And I was loyal to Garrett, but now that he's gone, I'm free," Ward shrugged. "Now, if you excuse me, I need to trim my facial hair-"

"Firstly, don't use that razor – I use it on my legs, armpits, and so on," Raina quickly said.

Grant, who was about to take it, actually, froze. "Okay, which one do I use?"

"I'm not sure. Agents Hunter and Morse tend to bring me new items of personal hygiene every Thursday or Friday, which would be tonight," Raina said with a shadow of her trademark vicious smile. "What a coincidence."

Grant ignored her. "Morse," he muttered thoughtfully. "Garrett told me about her. He thought it was funny, I – not so much. Let me see..." He walked to the clothes' closet, walked in and closed the door behind him. Raina waited for a few moments, and then, when Grant _did not_ come out, opened the door herself.

Grant was gone. "Um," Raina said mostly to herself. Common sense told her that there was a hidden door or panel in it somewhere, and she should search for it, but her heart was not in it. This would either provoke an attack from her former ally, or not. Frankly, after several weeks of being ignored or even discarded like some useless rubbish, being deemed not even worthy enough to kill by Grant Ward hurt. Well, so would being killed, but Grant Ward was a professional, he knew how to kill without any pain-

The door opened; agents Hunter and Morse came inside. "And what are you up to?" Hunter asked in his usual manner. "Looking for a man? Have you looked under the bed instead?"

"Why, when he's standing right here," Raina shot the male agent a pointed look, but to her surprise it was agent Morse who responded:

"Well, back off, 'cause he's mine!"

"He is?"/"I am?" Raina and Hunter asked simultaneously, though the latter sounded much more pleased about it than Raina.

"Fine," Raina shrugged. "I didn't sleep with him to begin with; he started this thing-"

"And if either of you will speak up, I will finish it," Morse glared. "Anyways, here are the disposables for the next week, and-"

"Hello, Morse," Grant Ward said amiably as he walked from behind the closet. "What'd I miss?"

The female agent charged, her batons ready and spinning. Instead of defending himself physically, however, Grant only asked: "What color is the red room?"

"Green!" Morse replied and stiffened, her facial expression growing vague, slacked.

"That's what I thought," Grant did not look too gloating, more like disappointed, or resigned.

"What did you do to her?" Hunter hissed, as he moved into a combat position, but again, Grant did not attack.

"Not I – Garrett. Once he launched the coup, he ensured that Whitehall knew about most, if not all of the agents in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s employ, which included your girlfriend. And Whitehall, according to Garrett, is something of a – quote – sick fuck, who likes BDSM and brainwashing a bit too much for my taste – unquote. When Garrett called anyone a sick fuck, well..." Grant shrugged, letting Hunter draw his own conclusions.

"So what have your friends over at Hydra done to her?" Hunter had reached them, and he did not like them.

"They're not my friends – I worked with Garrett, and with him gone...well, I'm making it as I'm going along for now," Grant shrugged, before switched his attention back to Morse. 'Hello, agent. I am agent Ward of Hydra." Behind him, he heard a hiss – yeah, admitting to the uninitiated that someone was Hydra, even in theory, produced this sort of effect. "What are your instructions?"

"Hail Hydra! To serve Hydra in any capacity, meaning, or want!"

In the closet's reflection – the inner side of the doors had a mirror on it – Ward could see Hunter mouth "want?" and frowning in thought.

"I see," Grant nodded in his own thinking. "Agent, look around. I want you to see a yellow door. I want you to walk to it and open it. Once you do that, you will remember everything that you forgot once you walked into the green room, and never forget. Can you do that?"

"Yes!" Morse did not hesitate. In a jerky, clockwork movement, she walked over to the washroom, (whose door was yellow), opened its door, and collapsed. Hunter immediately ran over to her, while Raina, (per Grant's instructions), ran over to the safe house's kitchenette for some water – but it proved to be unnecessary, Morse recovered on her own.

"Ward," she glared at the other man, "your friends at Hydra are even more twisted than when I have first remembered them." She paused. "So what is _your_ angle? Trying to make-up-" she drawled away, as both she and Hunter realized that if Grant was _here_, he wasn't somewhere else – for example, in an armored convoy car under heavy military guard. "You're not, are you?"

"I'm making this as I go along, now," Grant shrugged. "I just did _this_, because, well, it seemed like the right thing to do."

"And in return you expect us not to tell about you to Coulson?"

"Well, obviously, it's not like you're talking about helping me get rid of both yours and Hydra's tracers," Raina spoke up for the first time since Morse's collapse, and she sounded naturally bitter.

There was a pause as Grant thought this over. "Actually, now that you've mentioned it, I've got a different plan," he told the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents.

"Well, what is it?" the bitterness was still there, but now there was concern instead.

Grant told them.

_TBC_


	2. Part 2

**Part 2**

_Disclaimer: see previous chapter._

It were much more subdued (in the mood) agents Hunter and Morse who returned to the Playground...only to discover that the mood there wasn't all that great either, but rather everyone was acting as if a volcano has erupted and everyone was up to their ankles in ashes.

"So, what has happened _here_?" Hunter asked as a conversation opener to Skye, who was currently with Fitz and Mackenzie in the lab. (Simmons was not around, but she and Fitz were still avoiding each other, albeit for some new reason, maybe.)

"May has found out that Coulson have handed Grant over to the US military – Talbot's people, who also work for the good senator," Skye explained.

"And-?"

"Apparently, it just isn't done – we were supposed to deliver Grant over to whatever destination place personally, not invite the military over to our place," Skye elaborated. "I haven't seen agent May that angry with Coulson for a while, not since the whole Donnie Gill thing."

"Donnie who?" Morse instinctively asked.

"It was before you rescued Jemma and got back here," Skye sighed. "Basically, an ex-member of the Academy, who became a fledgling super villain instead. We tried to bring him in, Hydra has brainwashed him before, and so in the end we had to shoot him instead. Not one of our best operations, even if agent Mackenzie over there thinks otherwise."

"Hey, we got a lot of Hydra hardware and goods from that operation," the big man raised his hands in defence.

"Yes, but that wasn't really our objective-" the rest of Skye's sentence got cut off when Hunter put a small, transparent, plastic bag onto Fitz's desk:

"Can you check them out?" he asked, pointing to the two small devices inside the bag.

"Let's see," the younger man nodded, as he checked them out. "The one on the bottom is ours; the one on the top is Hydra. They're both tracking devices..." he froze, as his brain realized what his mouth was saying.

"Are you saying that now Hydra knows where we are again?" Skye's voice rose noticeably in pitch.

"No, no, those are different tracking devices – implants," Fitz quickly explained, realizing now that what he was saying right now was important. "All that Hydra knows is that whoever had their implant in them is now free, as do we...where did you get them?" Fitz's brain caught up to his mouth again.

"From Raina," Hunter admitted, grudgingly.

There was a pause as everyone thought this over. "Can you elaborate?" Skye pressed the Englishman.

Hunter looked at Morse. Morse looked right back at him, and together they told the story of Grant Ward's escape (possibly spectacular and certainly bloody) and of their attempt of confronting him (considerably less spectacular).

By the time they had finished, a quiet pall fell over the lab room.

"...So, Grant has escaped?" Coulson spoke-up suddenly, startling everyone, since everyone had assumed that he was still in his office.

"Aren't you in your office, sir?" Fitz asked the obvious question.

Coulson gave him a _look_. "No, agent Fitz, I'm right here."

"What he meant to say, sir, is _shouldn't_ you be in your office instead?" Mackenzie backed his younger friend up. (And Fitz gave him a grateful look.)

"Yes, I should," Coulson admitted, "but after May gave me another earful on the protocol, and Talbot called to offer me his condolences on Grant's escape, I couldn't stand to be there for another minute." He paused and looked at Hunter and Morse. "So, he is out." That was said in Coulson's blandest voice.

"Yes."

Silence returned, and this time it was broken by Skye. "So, whatever deal we had with his brother is off?" she asked.

Coulson paused. For the first time since the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. Hydra confrontation began, he and Talbot had more than a halfway civil conversation (thanks to May, at least in part), and it involved a certain senator, and his brother, quite a bit. Talbot...Coulson did not think too much of his opinion, but the general was right at least on one point: Christian Ward was a career politician, which meant that the man is inherently dishonest and very ambitious – thus, when you were dealing with him, anything was up for grabs.

Back under Fury Coulson had dealt with career politicians before, and he had not enjoyed the experience. They were not as bad as Hydra agents were, but they were as bad as crooked suppliers were... but that was unimportant.

"...That's unimportant," Coulson finished saying the abovementioned sentences to his team. "The reality is that Grant is at large, and as an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent he is our responsibility. We have to catch him."

"Mmm," agent Morse nodded in vague agreement, not wanting to point out that while Grant was speaking in undecided tones about killing Coulson, he was certainly _not reluctant_ to do the deed all the same. Unlike Simmons, whose undercover mission was more of a science-oriented bent, Morse had to deal with the more physical side of Hydra operations, and those did include killing, (or at least dominating), people with bare hands: if beating someone into submission was nasty, killing someone in that style was worse – and that was exactly what Grant planned to do to Coulson (maybe) – death by beating. He sounded perfectly sincere about it, too.

"Got him!" Skye said suddenly (apparently, it was her turn to startle everyone). "Hah, got Raina too, it seems," she added a bit more quietly. "The two of them are flying off to Australia."

"We got anyone in Australia?" Coulson asked, ignoring the convenient way that Skye was able to figure out where Grant was going right on cue – she was able to multitask from her beginning with S.H.I.E.L.D., after all.

"No," the answer came from May, who had finally joined the rest of the team in the lab. Jemma Simmons was weakly struggling in her grasp.

"Then we'll have to solve it by ourselves," Coulson nodded, before turning to the younger woman. "Jemma, what color is the red room?"

"Green!"

_The end?_


End file.
